Once Chris Davis hit the DL, he got dropped in a handful of leagues, and that's understandable. He had a miserable batting average (.226 at the time) and wasn't really worth a DL spot to some people who were able to go out and grab Joey Gallo and get essentially the same player. However, ever since Davis has come back from the DL, he's looked somewhat better. Now, looking at the batting average, he hasn't, because it's been .217 since he got back, including Wednesday's 1-4, 1 R, 2 RBI performance, but there are some more encouraging signs going forward. Since Davis got back from the DL, he's been hitting the ball extremely hard. Now, for a guy who's nickname is Crush, saying he hits the ball hard probably sounds stupid, but compared to his season before the DL stint, his hard hit rate has shot up from 37.9% to 48.7%. For a massive home run hitter, that's a really good sign, especially considering he's had his best home run seasons with hard hit rates in the 40s. The reason this hasn't translated as well is because he's hitting a lot of these balls to center field rather than pulling him like he's done in the past. If he's able to up his pull rate, and I think he will, while keeping that hard hit rate, we're going to be seeing a good number of home runs. Not only has he been hitting the ball harder, but believe it or not, his plate discipline stats have looked better. Since returning from the DL, both his chase rate and whiff rate have gone down while his contact rate has gone up. Now, I'm not all of a sudden expecting Davis to be some world-beater the rest of the season, but if you need power, these signs are encouraging that Davis could be the Chris Davis we expect him to be, rather than the poor version of Chris Davis he was before he hit the DL. He's still available in around 47% of ESPN leagues too.
Let's take a look at some of the other performances from Wednesday:
Thoughts on Steve Pearce? Is he for real? Advanced stats, essentially since the break, are impressive (especially wRC/wOBA/wRC+). Would you rather own him or Yuli Gurriel who has really cooled off since the break?
You know, I almost included Pearce on here. I think he’s alright if you’re in a deep league, but I think some of the stats since the break will slow down. He’s seen a big uptick in power, especially in hard hit rate and HR/FB rate, but he’s hitting fewer fly balls. I don’t think he’s going to keep up that HR/FB rate.
Still, I think he could hit in the .260s the rest of the year and end the year with close to 20 home runs, and there’s some value in that as long as he stays healthy.